


Queen

by aruarudayo



Series: Words With Friends [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, style experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 08:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2184828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aruarudayo/pseuds/aruarudayo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” -Albert Camus</p>
            </blockquote>





	Queen

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from bhelryss@dreamwidth

Rose considered herself a cold person. She cared deeply for her friends, but there was a certain detachment she tried to keep with the world, perhaps as a result of her upbringing. If she kept herself at arms distance, then the fact her mother seemed to vacillate between overbearing and neglectful didn’t seem so upsetting.

She decided to encase herself in ice early on, and even as she began to make friends, she remained in her cold castle, a princess of frost. Her three friends didn’t mind much, even as she began to psychoanalyze them in order to protect herself from them doing the same to her.

That really was the point here: she didn’t want to get hurt.

That was before the game though.

When they started their session, she began to feel reckless. If the world was going to end, then her life didn’t mean much to her; it didn’t matter anymore if she got hurt. She experimented—with the game, with her wands, with everything—and felt free. The impossible suddenly seemed possible—if magic was real, then anything could happen.

Her fragile frosty exterior melted away as she searched for the Green Sun, transforming into an invincible fortress of fire that ignited her blood, power surging through her veins. She took down much in her path, the sensation of destroying buildings and game constructs sending sparks of giddiness up her spine. 

Her conversations with her friends made her pause, however. They were concerned, which she found as odd seeing as she should be the one most aware of her limits, right? The voices of the dark gods beckoned to her, and she agreed that yes, her friends were being overly worried for no reason.

In the back of her mind, however, there existed an impasse, an invisible wall. There, she knew there was something not entirely right. On the other side of the wall, it seemed to just be another image of herself, so why was this wall here at all? 

Here, the remains of the chilly kingdom lay, patches of the old ice that made up her barriers slicking the ground, reminding her of what once was. She wanted to understand; she loathed lacking knowledge, so even if she needed a less than orthodox source, so be it. 

She figured that, to overcome the game, to survive, she needed to pass that wall somehow. So she consulted her sources, the white and black gods that she thought she had control over. But as she gazed into the cueball, heard the whispers of the darkness grow louder, she understood only one thing.

She was naïve.

The wall was not a hurdle for her to overcome. It was a boundary across which she should not tread, for beyond it was the worst monster of all—the darkness within herself. 

She thought she was invincible, but at what cost?

It was only fitting that she die like a dog in this state, a child throwing a tantrum.

When she woke up again, reborn, it was refreshing. She could start over.

Of course, Dave would have nothing of that, even as she tried to keep him from joining her suicide mission. In reality, she was glad for the company. 

Perhaps, more than anything, she was lonely. 

As the timer ticked down to her imminent demise and subsequent rebirth, she thought of the girl she once was, the frigid girl that refused to let others into her castle of ice, her wintry safe haven. She thought of the foolish girl that thought there was nothing that could stand in her way, that all she needed was power above all else. She thought, perhaps, she was still those girls, despite the maturity they had all been forced into. 

She was a child with a handful of friends. But that was enough, and that was okay. She wasn’t alone any more. It didn’t matter if she was hurt because there were people around her that she could rely on. And there was that girl in the mirror, the one she tried so hard to avoid, that was immature and scared, but still growing up.

Yes, at the end of the day, she was blessed. She was happy.

She greeted her death with a radiant smile, and both the castle of ice and the fortress of fire gave way to a kingdom of light.

Now, she was truly an invincible queen.


End file.
